soft robotics
30 articles about soft robotics in AI news
Manycore Tech Pivots from Real Estate to AI Robotics, Hits $1B Valuation
Manycore Tech Inc., a Chinese software company previously focused on real estate, has raised $150 million to pivot into AI and robotics, achieving a $1 billion valuation. The move is led by an Nvidia alumnus and capitalizes on China's strategic push into automation.
NVIDIA GTC 2025 Preview: Leaked Highlights Signal Major AI Hardware and Software Breakthroughs
Early leaks from NVIDIA's upcoming GTC 2025 conference reveal significant advancements in AI hardware, software frameworks, and robotics. The preview suggests major performance leaps and new capabilities that could reshape AI development across industries.
Gemini 3.1 Pro Leads METR Time Horizon, Handles 90-Minute Software Tasks
Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro is the new leader on METR's time horizon benchmark, successfully handling software tasks that take humans an average of 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete, with an average score of 77%. This marks a significant shift as Google takes the top spot from OpenAI and Anthropic on a key benchmark measuring autonomous agent capability.
Clone Robotics CEO Critiques Motor Reliance, Touts Fluid-Actuated Humanoids
Clone Robotics CEO Dhanush Radhakrishnan criticizes the industry's reliance on motors and rigid structures, advocating for fluid actuation and Myofiber artificial muscles to achieve more human-like movement.
Microsoft's Universal Verifier Cuts Agent Benchmark False Positives to Near Zero
Microsoft introduced the Universal Verifier, a method to accurately assess AI agent performance on web tasks. It slashes false positive rates from over 45% to near zero, fixing corrupted benchmarks and training data.
NVIDIA Advances AI Robotics with Simulation-First Training, Isaac & Jetson
NVIDIA showcased AI robotics advances using foundation models and synthetic environments for training, enabling scalable deployment in real-world sectors like agriculture and solar. Key platforms are the Isaac simulator and Jetson edge AI hardware.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang Declares All Future Software Will Be Agentic
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that all future software will be agentic, meaning every software company must transform into an agentic company. This vision positions AI agents as the fundamental architecture for future computing.
NVIDIA Spotlights Physical AI Tools for Robotics Week 2026
NVIDIA is highlighting its platforms for robot simulation, synthetic data, and AI-powered learning during National Robotics Week 2026, aiming to accelerate the transition from virtual training to physical deployment.
Microsoft Commits $10 Billion to AI Infrastructure and Talent in Japan Over Four Years
Microsoft announced a $10 billion, four-year investment plan for Japan, focusing on AI data center capacity, a new research lab, and training for 3 million workers. This is the company's largest investment in Japan and a strategic move to capture Asia's accelerating AI market.
Unipath Launches Household Robot, Joining China's Push into Consumer Robotics
Chinese company Unipath has launched a household robot. This marks another entry into the competitive consumer robotics market, where Chinese firms are increasingly active.
Unitree Robotics Releases UnifoLM-WBT-Dataset: A Large-Scale, Real-World Robotics Dataset for Embodied AI
Chinese robotics firm Unitree Robotics has open-sourced the UnifoLM-WBT-Dataset, a high-quality dataset derived from real-world robot operations. The release aims to accelerate training for embodied AI and large language models applied to physical systems.
Amazon Acquires Fauna Robotics and Its 3.5-Foot 'Sprout' Humanoid for Real-World Tasks
Amazon has acquired Fauna Robotics, a startup developing the 3.5-foot 'Sprout' humanoid robot designed for real-world manipulation tasks. The move signals Amazon's deepening investment in embodied AI and automation beyond its existing wheeled and arm-based systems.
SoftBank Reportedly Leveraging 25% LTV Ceiling to Fund $30B OpenAI Investment
SoftBank is reportedly pushing its own 25% loan-to-value ceiling to borrow more against its assets, aiming to fund a new $30 billion investment in OpenAI. This aggressive financial engineering signals a massive, concentrated bet on the AI leader.
Unitree Robotics Files for $607.8M Shanghai IPO, A Bellwether for China's Humanoid Robot Industry
Chinese humanoid robotics firm Unitree Robotics has filed for an IPO on Shanghai's Star Market, seeking to raise 4.2B yuan ($607.8M). The listing is seen as a critical test of investor appetite for embodied AI companies.
Unitree Robotics Files for $610M IPO on Shanghai Star Market After 335% Revenue Surge
Chinese robotics firm Unitree Robotics has filed for a $610M IPO after revenue jumped 335% to 1.71B yuan in 2024. The company shipped over 30,000 quadruped and 5,500 humanoid robots, with humanoids now driving over half its revenue.
Roseate Hotels Deploys Robotics for Operational Efficiency in Luxury Hospitality
Roseate Hotels is implementing robotics to streamline operations, reflecting a broader trend of AI adoption in the luxury sector. This move aims to enhance efficiency while maintaining high service standards.
Simplexity Robotics Shatters Funding Records, Becoming China's Fastest Embodied AI Unicorn
Chinese startup Simplexity Robotics has raised $280 million in under six months, achieving unicorn status faster than any other company in the embodied AI sector. The massive funding round attracted investments from tech giants Tencent and Alibaba, signaling intense competition in China's robotics landscape.
Silicon Valley AI Startup Targets Japan's Industrial Robotics Crown
Former Google AI researchers have launched Integral AI in Tokyo, aiming to transform Japan's massive industrial robotics sector with AI models that teach robots through observation and language prompts. The startup is already in talks with Toyota, Sony, and other manufacturing giants.
OpenAI's Robotics Ambitions Hit Roadblock as Hardware Chief Departs
OpenAI's head of hardware and robotics has resigned, raising questions about the company's physical AI ambitions. The departure comes as OpenAI faces increasing competition in robotics and hardware integration.
OctaPulse Brings AI Robotics to Aquaculture, Starting with Automated Fish Inspection
OctaPulse, a Y Combinator-backed startup, is deploying robotics and computer vision to automate fish inspection in aquaculture. Their system aims to replace manual sampling methods, reduce fish stress, and provide real-time data for better farming decisions.
Microsoft's EMPO²: A Memory-Augmented RL Framework That Supercharges LLM Agent Exploration
Microsoft has unveiled EMPO², a hybrid reinforcement learning framework that enhances LLM agents with augmented memory for true exploration. The system combines on- and off-policy optimization to discover novel states, achieving 128.6% performance gains over existing methods on ScienceWorld benchmarks.
Ethan Mollick: AI's Real Economic Impact Will Be in Robotics, Not Just White-Collar Work
Wharton professor Ethan Mollick argues that while AI is transforming knowledge work, the true economic revolution will occur when AI-powered robots transform the physical economy, echoing past industrial shifts.
Zalando Scales Up AI-Powered Warehouse Robotics in Major Logistics Push
European fashion giant Zalando is significantly expanding its deployment of AI-driven warehouse robots. This move signals a strategic acceleration in automating logistics to handle fashion's complex inventory and seasonal demand spikes.
Multi-Agent Orchestration for Luxury Retail: The Protocol That Unlicks Automated Warehouses & In-Store Robotics
A new AI protocol enables heterogeneous robots from different vendors to coordinate movement in shared spaces. For luxury retail, this solves critical automation challenges in high-value warehouses and boutique backrooms, allowing seamless integration of diverse robotic systems.
Horizon Launches Full-Stack AI Platform for Autonomous Driving
Horizon Robotics launched a trio of products—a new chip, an open-source OS, and a smart driving system—aiming to push cars closer to becoming autonomous AI agents. The platform integrates hardware and software for enhanced perception and decision-making.
Eric Schmidt Declares the Next AI Frontier: From Digital to Physical
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt argues in Time that AI's future lies in interacting with the physical world through robotics and embodied systems, moving beyond pure software to transform industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics.
NVIDIA, Google Cloud Expand AI Partnership for Agentic & Physical AI
NVIDIA and Google Cloud announced an expanded partnership to advance agentic and physical AI, focusing on new infrastructure and software integrations. This builds on their existing collaboration to provide optimized AI training and inference platforms.
Figure AI's Humanoid Robots Deployed at BMW, Signaling Industry Acceleration
Figure AI has deployed its Figure 01 humanoid robots in a BMW manufacturing plant, moving beyond pilot programs into active production work. This signals a critical acceleration phase for the humanoid robotics industry.
Toyota CUE7 Robot Makes Free Throws at Tokyo Basketball Game
Toyota's CUE7 robot successfully performed dribbling and free throws during a live halftime show in Tokyo. The demonstration highlights advances in real-world, dynamic bipedal/wheeled robotics.
Figure CEO: Data Scarcity is the 'Only Thing' Holding Back General Robots
Figure CEO Brett Adcock asserts that solving general robotics is contingent on acquiring a 'pile of data' for training, highlighting the extreme cost and difficulty of collecting real-world robotic interaction data.